Those skilled in the art will appreciate that automatic nail driving devices, more generally known as rapid-acting driving apparatus, are commonly used in the construction trade for driving nails into work pieces. The actuating devices, not forming part of this invention, may be either pneumatically powered or otherwise, but they all feature a magazine into which a linear strip of nails is placed, each nail being "peeled off" from the strip by the actuating device each time the actuating device is activated.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,042 issued June 29, 1976 by Shelton et al, a fastener strip is disclosed in which the adjacent side-by-side nails are held, closedly spaced, in a side-by-side parallel array by means of a polyethylene or plastic carrier, which has been bonded to each adjacent nail such that when the nail is driven by the pneumatic nail driving apparatus, a portion of the carrier itself follows the nail into the work piece.
Other prior art nail strips, which are available, have the nails relatively aligned in side-by-side close spaced parallel relation, with the heads of an adjacent nail overlapping that of another, so that the strip forms 2 plane surfaces on opposite sides of the nail strip as disclosed by Shelton. In each of these surface planes there is either one or a pair of rod-like wires of diameter substantially less than that of the shank, each of the rods braised to each shank to thereby hold the nails into a continuous strip or range. The wire rods, not being of heavy cross-section, allow the strip of nails to bend and this sometimes causes jamming of the nails in the magazine during consumption and during collating operations. During consumption, of course, the wire rods must be either destroyed or consumed as by following each shank into the work piece. In the later case the wire must first be severed from the adjacent shank and expelled from the driving apparatus; either together with a shank, or at a later moment.
Attempts to overcome these difficulties include replacing the parallel wire rods on opposite surfaces with an adhesive ribbon sheet wherein the sheet is paper or polyethylene and has on one surface thereof an adhesive which is juxtaposed against the collated side-by-side shanks. Some of the driving devices which employ a range of nails so fabricated have difficulty in discharging the paper or polythylene sheet and the device clogs.
The invention has an one of its objects the elimination of a carrier or sheet material and the utilization of an adhesive or bonding agent which at normal or ambient room temperature is a solid, but which may be affixed to the nails in the liquid or molten state. On solidification of the bonding agent adjacent, side-by-side shanks are held rigidly together. The bonding agent works best, if the shanks are juxtaposed one to another. Molten zinc is a satisfactory adhesive that if allowed to solidify on adjacently (juxtaposed) disposed nails forms a meniscus band therebetween, the said meniscus interjoining one shank to the other and forming the means for rigidly constraining side-by-side shanks into a rigid arrangement. During consumption by the driving apparatus, the apparatus severs the meniscus and the nail with piece. There is thus no requirement to discard the carrier, adhesive, or sheet since no remnants are left in the magazine.
In one aspect of the invention thereof, I contemplate an improved bonded strip of similar rod-like members comprising a plurality of shanks aligned in an adjacent side-by-side flat parallel array, each shank defining at one end, a head of larger transverse dimension than the shank along most of the transverse dimension while communicating with a point on the perimeter of the head with the shank so that 2 adjacent members so formed may be placed so that the shanks are preferably juxtaposed and held by a bonding material surrounding each shank and interjoining the next with a meniscus so as to hold the strip rigid, the bonding material preferably having a melting temperature above normal or room temperature.
The prior art is replete with various devices and methods for collating rod-like elements such as nails and the like and for applying the paper and wire retainers, or the plastic surround of Shelton. Such prior art methods and devices require that the nails, after their fabrication and in collection in a bulk storage bin, are picked up and then forwarded to a cleaning station and onward to an interim storage station thereafter. Subsequently the nails are picked up again and placed into a tumbler and then poured into containers. Then the container contents are dumped into a threading station or collating station if smooth shanks are preferred, which in one aspect acts as source means for providing a continuous even supply of feed nails into a threader means that threads the nails into a parallel strip or alternately correlates them there. A typical prior art method and apparatus is that disclosed by Barnes in U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,028 issued Nov. 13, 1975 for a Method and Apparatus for Orienting and Storing Similar Articles, the particular method being preferably used to place the adhesive paper sheet on opposite parallel surfaces of the nails or screws that are first continuously fed from a bulk supply for collation into a range of side-by-side elements by the Barnes apparatus. The prior art requires various intermediate steps of material handling, storing, where each storing operation tends to damage some nails or screws as the case might be; spillage associated with storage, continuous feeding or nails from bulk storage prior to feeding, the threader or collator that arranges them in a parallel arrays of packages. (It is at the continuous feeding step in the prior art into the threader for collation that damaged nails or nails damaged by the collator are detected and removed.) Should the nails be fabricated by the nail fabricating machine in an improper or deformed manner since this is the first step of "quality control" in all likelihood all or most of the nails which have been stored in the bulk and interim storage bin will generally have to be discarded. This is wasteful and time consumming.
It is an object of the invention to overcome these problems by avoiding bulk storage of formed nails and providing a means for collating similar articles such as nails or screws immediately on their respective fabrication (as from the nail forming or screw forming device), while discarding prior to collation, damaged product, collating and binding acceptable elements into a parallel array or strip and if required subsequent packaging the strips for shipment.
It is a preferred object that the identical members be nails that have a flat head integral to one end of a cylindrical shank that tapers at its distal end into a point. The shank may have a smooth cylindrical surface or define thereon serrations or corregations or may even have a helix race thereabout. The shank surface is immaterial to the invention. The flat head however should have a mean transverse dimension greater than that of the shank, the head material being removed such as to allow juxtaposition of one shank adjacent the other. An appropriate adhesive that eventually solidifies, envelopes adjacent shanks and forms a rigid meniscus therebetween so as to form the range into a rigid strip of nails that can be conveniently inserted into a magazine of a rapid-acting fastener driving apparatus. The carrier adhesive preferably is a molten material such as zinc which solidifies at room temperature. Preferably the head is formed as a truncated disc that defines a chord that intersects at one point with the outside circumference of the shank while the balance of the disc overlays the shank; hence, is of a transverse dimension larger than that of the shank. The rigid array has the head of the next adjacent nail in a plane juxaposed to and parallel therewith so that the array has nail heads cascadingly overlapping each in a unique yet relatively adjacent parallel plane.
The invention contemplates therefore an improved bonded strip of similar rod-like fastener elements, each having a shank that is in alignment and in an adjacent side-by-side flat, parallel array, each shank defining at one end, a head of larger transverse dimension than the shank, the head on one shank overlying in part, the head of an adjacent shank and means for rigidly bonding adjacent shanks one to the other thereby forming the improved bonded strip. Particularly, the bonding agent is solidified zinc and the head of each shank has a larger transverse dimension than the shank for most of its dimension and preferably traces out the loci of points as its perimeter being that of a circle intersected by a chord that is tangential with the prolongation of the shank. The heads are overlayed with an adjacent head so preferably the shanks are juxtaposed.
The invention also templates a method of arranging into a rigid parallel array, a plurality of uniformly formed rod-shaped fastener elements, such as nails, comprising the steps of;
(a) conveying the said fasteners sequentially and spacially one behind the other along a first linear run
(b) orienting the elements in a common direction respectively parallel one to the other along said first run;
(c) compacting the adjacent spacial distance of the elements so as to place adjacent elements into proximate, parallel relationship;
(d) immersing similar ends of parallel adjacent elements in a bonding agent so as to form a meniscus therebetween; and,
(e) solidifying the meniscus so as to form, into a rigid parallel array, a plurality of said elements.
Particularly the method includes the step of immersing the similar ends in molten zinc and for cleaning excess molten zinc therefrom prior to the solidification of the zinc into the meniscus by the solidifying step (e). This is achieved generally by arranging the elements, during the compacting step (b) so as to depend in parallel relationship from a first run along which they progressively travel and progressively tilting each advancing nail along the run into a predetermined relative angle to its travel and preferably allowing the head to lead the shank thereby to cause each head of a preceding adjacent element to overlay the head of a succeeding element. When stacked in this fashion, a succeeding step immerses the shanks in parallel adjacent side-by-side relation in molten zinc and removes them in a similar fashion out of the bath, cleaning excess zinc from the respective surfaces while allowing the meniscus formed in the bath to cool and hence solidify the zinc; thus the rigid array is formed. Appropriately, a given number of elements may be severed.
The invention therefore contemplates a new apparatus for collating and for arranging in a rigid parallel array a predetermined number of uniformly formed rod-like fastener elements, such as nails, comprising;
(a) means for receiving in sequence rod-like fastener elements from a feed supply;
(b) conveying the fasteners along a first run in a linear fashion while orienting the rod-like fasteners into parallel alignment coincident with the direction of the run;
(c) means for applying a bonding agent onto adjacent elements during a second run so as to form a meniscus between adjacent elements; and,
(d) means for solidifying the meniscus thereby to form the rigid parallel array of rod-like fastener elements.
The invention will now be described by way of example and reference to the accompanying drawings in which;